This invention relates to the manufacture of ice cream sandwiches, especially those that are formed from a round layer of ice cream or the like sandwiched between two round cookies or the like. The exposed edge of the ice cream is coated with chips made of chocolate, nuts or the like and the entire confection tends to resemble a hamburger.
Prior ice cream sandwich making has usually been accomplished in a very rudimentary manner, although vibrating dispensers have been utilized for feeding chips toward the sandwiches for coating thereof.
It is an object of the invention to provide an essentially mechanized system for treating and coating the formed sandwiches prior to their being fed to a freezing machine.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a system which is simple and efficient and in which the sandwiches are quickly treated and coated in a unique manner.
It is yet another object to provide a system wherein excess chips are prevented from "gumming up" the machinery and are also recycled.
In accordance with the various aspects of the invention, a generally imperforate conveyor belt of articulated design carries a plurality of longitudinally spaced confection carrier assemblies. Each assembly includes an outer table having peripheral guide surfaces for receiving and supporting the sandwich. The table is connected via a rotatable shaft which extends through the belt to an inner sprocket. The sprocket engages a fixed rack as the conveyor passes through a coating station to thereby rotate the sandwich, which is in the path of sprayed chips.
The chips are fed from a supply hopper onto a horizontal conveyor and hence to a chute which feeds the chips into a whirling brush which sprays the chips onto the edge of the sandwich.
A sandwich squeezing device is positioned upstream of the chip spray, while an air jet disposed downstream of the spray removes unwanted chips from the top cookie surface of the sandwich. The unused chips lying on the conveyor finally drop off the conveyor end and are recycled back to the supply hopper.